New show day/time; features Edward Said

Irvine -- Alternative News, a KUCI public affairs program, this quarter
moves to Fridays at 5 p.m. Today's show includes an interview with social
critic and political analyst Edward Said on the Middle East crisis from
"Making Contact".

The show also will feature the latest news from Free Speech Radio News,
including a report of protest plans during the Bush inauguration.

The show airs from 5-6 p.m. today on KUCI, 88.9 fm in Orange County, and
is Web-cast at kuci.org.
We thank Free Speech Radio News and the National Radio Project (which
produces Making Contact) for making these programs available.

On September 29, 2000, a new wave of intense protests erupted in the
Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. On this program we take a look
at some of the root causes of conflict in that region of the world. And,
we'll provide perspectives on this issue not often heard in the U.S. mass
media -- those of Jewish-Americans and Palestinian-Americans calling for
Israeli withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza.

FEATURING:

Edward Said, Columbia University professor
Gayle Kirshenbaum, Not in our Name Coalition
Yifat Susskind, an Israeli-American human rights activist
Michael Feinberg, a New York City Rabbi
Khalil Barhoum, a Palestinian writer and activist and professor at
Stanford University
Eyad Kishawi, Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators will converge on Washington, D.C.
on Saturday, January 20th for George W. Bush's presidential inauguration.

They'll come to Washington to defend the legal right to abortion, which
many see as threatened by Bush's choice for attorney-general -- former
Missouri Senator John Ashcroft, an icon of the religious right. They'll
also come to protest the death penalty and demand freedom for Death Row
journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. And they'll come to protest the inauguration
itself, viewed as An insult by those who believe Bush became president
only because of the disenfranchisement of millions of voters, particularly
African-Americans.

Faced with an expected turnout of three quarters of a million people,
local and federal police agencies have joined forces to control, and, some
say, prevent the demonstrators from getting their message across. As the
week began, only one group had received a permit from the D.C. police,
although four major marches are planned. Free speech advocates won an
important legal victory Tuesday, when the International Action Center, one
of the first groups to call for a counter-inaugural protest, was granted a
permit.

But organizers are continuing to press for assurances that, in the words
of the U.S. Constitution, "the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" will be
respected. From New York, Susan Wood reports.

FLORIDIANS DEMAND DEMOCRACY

As activists march on Washington on Inauguration Day to protest the George
W. Bush Presidency, there will also be demonstrations taking place in
Florida - the state which was the focus of the five-week recount
controversy ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. From Tampa,
Mitch Perry has this report on the protest plans in Florida.

CALIFORNIA POWER ON THE BRINK

California declared an electric supply emergency this week as fall-out
continues from implementation of the state's 1996 plan for electricity
deregulation, which has caused energy prices to soar. On Thursday, the
state's power exchange issued warned that rolling blackouts might be
required to avoid the collapse of the entire power grid. In Washington,
negotiations continued between state and federal officials, power plant
owners, and California's two big utilities. And in Sacramento, California
law-makers began considering proposals to rein in the crisis caused by
state's energy deregulation plan. Aaron Glantz reports from California's
capital.

WESTERN POWER CRISIS SPREADS NORTH

While Californians deal with skyrocketing electricity prices, the
Northwest has been going through a power crisis of its own. Failure of
generating capacity to keep up with increased demand in the region, along
with a dry autumn and low winter snowpack, has left residents looking at
higher power bills as well. And as California looks hungrily toward the
Northwest's traditionally cheaper power, the dynamics of the region's
power marketing are in flux. Leigh Robartes has more.

WILL LONDON PRIVATISE THE TUBE?

Privatisation of government-owned industries and services was a trademark
of Great Britain under Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative Party. But
the Labour government under Prime Minister Tony Blair has been reluctant
to reverse privatisation and has even supported it in certain sectors.
Blair's Deputy Prime Minister has called for the privatisation of London's
underground train system, but Ken Livingstone, the city's left-wing Labour
Mayor, says the Tube should stay in public hands. From London, Patrick
Beckett reports.

WBAI LISTENERS STRIKE BACK

Last Saturday in New York City, more than a thousand demonstrated outside
the studios of WBAI-FM, the New York station of Pacifica, the nation's
largest and oldest progressive radio network. The protest continued a wave
of organizing and agitation which has followed the so-called "Christmas
coup" at WBAI, when Pacifica Foundation executive director Bessie Wash
changed the locks at the station in the middle of the night and installed
talk show host Utrice Leid as interim general manager. Bernard White,
Program Director and host of the station's Morning Show, and Sharan Louise
Harper, the morning show's producer, were fired. Three volunteer producers
and reporters were also banned from the station. All were threatened with
trespass charges if they returned to WBAI. The moves were reminiscent of
three-week lockout at Pacifica's Berkeley, California station in 1999 and
many Pacifica supporters see them as part of a strategy to mainstream
programming and centralize control within the network. From New York,
Miranda Kennedy files this report.